Ecology and Conservation of Great Plains Vertebrates

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xi

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2. The Great Plains Landscape as Vertebrate Habitats

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1

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   2. Landscape Gradients and Habitat Structure in Native Grasslands of the Central Great Plains

      • Mary Ann Vinton, Scott L. Collins

      Pages 3-19

   3. Wetlands of the Great Plains: Habitat Characteristics and Vertebrate Aggregations

      • Murray K. Laubhan, Leigh H. Fredrickson

      Pages 20-48

   4. Water Management and Cottonwood Forest Dynamics Along Prairie Streams

      • Jonathan M. Friedman, Michael L. Scott, Gregor T. Auble

      Pages 49-71

   5. Comparative Ecology of Native and Introduced Ungulates

      • D. C. Hartnett, A. A. Steuter, K. R. Hickman

      Pages 72-101

3. Ecology of Vertebrate Assemblages Within Grassland Landscapes

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 103-103

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   2. Historical Changes in the Landscape and Vertebrate Diversity of North Central Nebraska

      • Michael A. Bogan

      Pages 105-130

   3. Ecology of Fishes Indigenous to the Central and Southwestern Great Plains

      • Kurt D. Fausch, Kevin R. Bestgen

      Pages 131-166

   4. Avian Community Responses to Fire, Grazing, and Drought in the Tallgrass Prairie

      • John L. Zimmerman

      Pages 167-180

   5. Effects of Fire on Bird Populations in Mixed-Grass Prairie

      • Douglas H. Johnson

      Pages 181-206

   6. Ecology of Small Mammals in Prairie Landscapes

      • Glennis A. Kaufman, Donald W. Kaufman

      Pages 207-243

   7. Stopover Ecology of Transitory Populations: The Case of Migrant Shorebirds

      • Susan K. Skagen

      Pages 244-269

4. Conclusion

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 271-271

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   2. Conservation of Grassland Vertebrates

      • Fritz L. Knopf, Fred B. Samson

      Pages 273-289

5. Back Matter

   Pages 291-323

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The frontier images of America embrace endless horizons, majestic herds of native ungulates, and romanticized life-styles of nomadie peoples. The images were mere reflections of vertebrates living in harmony in an ecosystem driven by the unpre­ dictable local and regional effects of drought, frre, and grazing. Those effects, often referred to as ecological "disturbanees," are rather the driving forces on which species depended to create the spatial and temporal heterogeneity that favored ecological prerequisites for survival. Alandscape viewed by European descendants as monotony interrupted only by extremes in weather and commonly referred to as the "Great American Desert," this country was to be rushed through and cursed, a barrier that hindered access to the deep soils of the Oregon country, the rich minerals of California and Colorado, and the religious freedom sought in Utah. Those who stayed (for lack of resources or stamina) spent a century trying to moderate the ecological dynamics of Great Plains prairies by suppressing fires, planting trees and exotic grasses, poisoning rodents, diverting waters, and homogenizing the dynamies of grazing with endless fences-all creating bound­ an otherwise boundless vista. aries in Historically, travelers and settlers referred to the area of tallgrasses along the western edge of the deciduous forest and extending midway across Kansas as the "True Prairie. " The grasses thlnned and became shorter to the west, an area known then as the Great Plains.

• ecology
• ecosystem
• terrestrial ecosystem
• vertebrates
• wetland

• National Biological Service, Ft. Collins, USA

  Fritz L. Knopf

• U.S. Forest Service, Missoula, USA

  Fred B. Samson

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